Cults & Society
 Department: Group Report
__________________________________________________
Featured Group Report

Hare Krishna: child abuse
  
 
   
 
     

8/22

Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement:1971-1986

E. Burke Rochford, Jr. with Jennifer Heinlein  

[continued]

Two young men recount their days as students in the Vrindavan, India, gurukula during the early 1980s. 

X: I wasn't afraid of being sexually molested.  I don't think I was afraid of being mentally abused either.  I was definitely afraid of being physically abused . . . Sexual molestation, all of us, man, we'd just take it, you know. . . That's what we all felt. We didn't even consider it abuse back then.  XX:  Yeah, that was just normal. . .The ironic thing about that, though, is probably the mental thing [abuse] was probably the longest lasting.  X: There was no way to escape that. (Group Interview 1993) 

As word of child abuse within the gurukula came to the attention of ISKCON authorities, some efforts were made to intervene.  Yet this very intervention sometimes resulted in new strategies of coercive abuse.  Most significant was enlisting older boys in the Vrindavan gurukula to physically abuse younger students who were deemed troublesome and unruly by teachers.   

X: The other thing was that older boys acting in the capacity of monitors were used to abuse the younger students.  Some started to realise that ‘Hey, teachers can't be beating kids.'  They did it in a new way.  EBR:  With the monitors.  X: Yeah.  Which was the older boys beating the younger boys, and I was one of the older ones . . .and they [teachers] would call me in on occasion and I would just have to knock the living s---[out of a younger student] . . . I'd be sitting there going ‘Man, I love you.  I don't want to be doing this. . .’ [I]t's like,’ what are you gonna do?  If I don't do it to you, they're gonna do it to me.’  XX:  That's another kind of mental abuse. (Group Interview, 1993) 

While a proportion of ISKCON's children were themselves abused, others experienced the abuse as they watched their friends and classmates being mistreated by teachers and others responsible for their care. 

If the teachers treated one of our friends bad then we all felt bad.  I remember there was one teacher that used to grab one of us by the ears and bang us against the wall.  And we all stood there and watched and felt really bad. . . She [the teacher] was doing it to all of us. (Interview 1992)

 

Maybe what [name of ashram teacher] was doing to [name of student] was hurting others [students] more than him.  For [name of student] it was an everyday thing.  I was standing right next to [him] and I was crying.  I was freaked out.  I was afraid I was gonna be next because I knew he was gettin' it for no reason.  If he could get it for no reason so could I.  (Group interview 1993) 

In the school in Vrindavan, India, abusive treatment became so commonplace that students sought to routinise their mistreatment as a protective strategy.                  

It was like boot camp, but it wasn't temporary.  You became part of a unit.  Boot camp was a full-time thing for us.  They're just constantly knocking you down, knocking you down. . . lower, lower, lower. What are they gonna do?  Beat me again?  Go ahead. (Laughter). Big deal!  (Group interview 1993)

 

But beyond the question of young people being abused by adults working in the gurukula15 was the general environment of neglect that existed.  Without parents present, many felt abandoned, or as one second generation youth remarked, ‘We were just unwanted.’  Many of the young people interviewed described the atmosphere in the gurukula as one lacking in love and compassion.  They felt invisible, abandoned and unworthy of love and affection from both their parents and adult caregivers.16   

1/22 < > 22/22

______________________________________________ ^
 

Cults & Society
 Department: Group Report
__________________________________________________
Featured Group Report

Hare Krishna: child abuse
  
 
   
 
     

8/22

Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement:1971-1986

E. Burke Rochford, Jr. with Jennifer Heinlein  

[continued]

Two young men recount their days as students in the Vrindavan, India, gurukula during the early 1980s. 

X: I wasn't afraid of being sexually molested.  I don't think I was afraid of being mentally abused either.  I was definitely afraid of being physically abused . . . Sexual molestation, all of us, man, we'd just take it, you know. . . That's what we all felt. We didn't even consider it abuse back then.  XX:  Yeah, that was just normal. . .The ironic thing about that, though, is probably the mental thing [abuse] was probably the longest lasting.  X: There was no way to escape that. (Group Interview 1993) 

As word of child abuse within the gurukula came to the attention of ISKCON authorities, some efforts were made to intervene.  Yet this very intervention sometimes resulted in new strategies of coercive abuse.  Most significant was enlisting older boys in the Vrindavan gurukula to physically abuse younger students who were deemed troublesome and unruly by teachers.   

X: The other thing was that older boys acting in the capacity of monitors were used to abuse the younger students.  Some started to realise that ‘Hey, teachers can't be beating kids.'  They did it in a new way.  EBR:  With the monitors.  X: Yeah.  Which was the older boys beating the younger boys, and I was one of the older ones . . .and they [teachers] would call me in on occasion and I would just have to knock the living s---[out of a younger student] . . . I'd be sitting there going ‘Man, I love you.  I don't want to be doing this. . .’ [I]t's like,’ what are you gonna do?  If I don't do it to you, they're gonna do it to me.’  XX:  That's another kind of mental abuse. (Group Interview, 1993) 

While a proportion of ISKCON's children were themselves abused, others experienced the abuse as they watched their friends and classmates being mistreated by teachers and others responsible for their care. 

If the teachers treated one of our friends bad then we all felt bad.  I remember there was one teacher that used to grab one of us by the ears and bang us against the wall.  And we all stood there and watched and felt really bad. . . She [the teacher] was doing it to all of us. (Interview 1992)

 

Maybe what [name of ashram teacher] was doing to [name of student] was hurting others [students] more than him.  For [name of student] it was an everyday thing.  I was standing right next to [him] and I was crying.  I was freaked out.  I was afraid I was gonna be next because I knew he was gettin' it for no reason.  If he could get it for no reason so could I.  (Group interview 1993) 

In the school in Vrindavan, India, abusive treatment became so commonplace that students sought to routinise their mistreatment as a protective strategy.                  

It was like boot camp, but it wasn't temporary.  You became part of a unit.  Boot camp was a full-time thing for us.  They're just constantly knocking you down, knocking you down. . . lower, lower, lower. What are they gonna do?  Beat me again?  Go ahead. (Laughter). Big deal!  (Group interview 1993)

 

But beyond the question of young people being abused by adults working in the gurukula15 was the general environment of neglect that existed.  Without parents present, many felt abandoned, or as one second generation youth remarked, ‘We were just unwanted.’  Many of the young people interviewed described the atmosphere in the gurukula as one lacking in love and compassion.  They felt invisible, abandoned and unworthy of love and affection from both their parents and adult caregivers.16   

1/22 < > 22/22

______________________________________________ ^
 

Cults & Society
 Department: Group Report
__________________________________________________
Featured Group Report

Hare Krishna: child abuse
  
 
   
 
     

8/22

Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement:1971-1986

E. Burke Rochford, Jr. with Jennifer Heinlein  

[continued]

Two young men recount their days as students in the Vrindavan, India, gurukula during the early 1980s. 

X: I wasn't afraid of being sexually molested.  I don't think I was afraid of being mentally abused either.  I was definitely afraid of being physically abused . . . Sexual molestation, all of us, man, we'd just take it, you know. . . That's what we all felt. We didn't even consider it abuse back then.  XX:  Yeah, that was just normal. . .The ironic thing about that, though, is probably the mental thing [abuse] was probably the longest lasting.  X: There was no way to escape that. (Group Interview 1993) 

As word of child abuse within the gurukula came to the attention of ISKCON authorities, some efforts were made to intervene.  Yet this very intervention sometimes resulted in new strategies of coercive abuse.  Most significant was enlisting older boys in the Vrindavan gurukula to physically abuse younger students who were deemed troublesome and unruly by teachers.   

X: The other thing was that older boys acting in the capacity of monitors were used to abuse the younger students.  Some started to realise that ‘Hey, teachers can't be beating kids.'  They did it in a new way.  EBR:  With the monitors.  X: Yeah.  Which was the older boys beating the younger boys, and I was one of the older ones . . .and they [teachers] would call me in on occasion and I would just have to knock the living s---[out of a younger student] . . . I'd be sitting there going ‘Man, I love you.  I don't want to be doing this. . .’ [I]t's like,’ what are you gonna do?  If I don't do it to you, they're gonna do it to me.’  XX:  That's another kind of mental abuse. (Group Interview, 1993) 

While a proportion of ISKCON's children were themselves abused, others experienced the abuse as they watched their friends and classmates being mistreated by teachers and others responsible for their care. 

If the teachers treated one of our friends bad then we all felt bad.  I remember there was one teacher that used to grab one of us by the ears and bang us against the wall.  And we all stood there and watched and felt really bad. . . She [the teacher] was doing it to all of us. (Interview 1992)

 

Maybe what [name of ashram teacher] was doing to [name of student] was hurting others [students] more than him.  For [name of student] it was an everyday thing.  I was standing right next to [him] and I was crying.  I was freaked out.  I was afraid I was gonna be next because I knew he was gettin' it for no reason.  If he could get it for no reason so could I.  (Group interview 1993) 

In the school in Vrindavan, India, abusive treatment became so commonplace that students sought to routinise their mistreatment as a protective strategy.                  

It was like boot camp, but it wasn't temporary.  You became part of a unit.  Boot camp was a full-time thing for us.  They're just constantly knocking you down, knocking you down. . . lower, lower, lower. What are they gonna do?  Beat me again?  Go ahead. (Laughter). Big deal!  (Group interview 1993)

 

But beyond the question of young people being abused by adults working in the gurukula15 was the general environment of neglect that existed.  Without parents present, many felt abandoned, or as one second generation youth remarked, ‘We were just unwanted.’  Many of the young people interviewed described the atmosphere in the gurukula as one lacking in love and compassion.  They felt invisible, abandoned and unworthy of love and affection from both their parents and adult caregivers.16   

1/22 < > 22/22

______________________________________________ ^
 

Cults & Society
 Department: Group Report
__________________________________________________
Featured Group Report

Hare Krishna: child abuse
  
 
   
 
     

8/22

Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement:1971-1986

E. Burke Rochford, Jr. with Jennifer Heinlein  

[continued]

Two young men recount their days as students in the Vrindavan, India, gurukula during the early 1980s. 

X: I wasn't afraid of being sexually molested.  I don't think I was afraid of being mentally abused either.  I was definitely afraid of being physically abused . . . Sexual molestation, all of us, man, we'd just take it, you know. . . That's what we all felt. We didn't even consider it abuse back then.  XX:  Yeah, that was just normal. . .The ironic thing about that, though, is probably the mental thing [abuse] was probably the longest lasting.  X: There was no way to escape that. (Group Interview 1993) 

As word of child abuse within the gurukula came to the attention of ISKCON authorities, some efforts were made to intervene.  Yet this very intervention sometimes resulted in new strategies of coercive abuse.  Most significant was enlisting older boys in the Vrindavan gurukula to physically abuse younger students who were deemed troublesome and unruly by teachers.   

X: The other thing was that older boys acting in the capacity of monitors were used to abuse the younger students.  Some started to realise that ‘Hey, teachers can't be beating kids.'  They did it in a new way.  EBR:  With the monitors.  X: Yeah.  Which was the older boys beating the younger boys, and I was one of the older ones . . .and they [teachers] would call me in on occasion and I would just have to knock the living s---[out of a younger student] . . . I'd be sitting there going ‘Man, I love you.  I don't want to be doing this. . .’ [I]t's like,’ what are you gonna do?  If I don't do it to you, they're gonna do it to me.’  XX:  That's another kind of mental abuse. (Group Interview, 1993) 

While a proportion of ISKCON's children were themselves abused, others experienced the abuse as they watched their friends and classmates being mistreated by teachers and others responsible for their care. 

If the teachers treated one of our friends bad then we all felt bad.  I remember there was one teacher that used to grab one of us by the ears and bang us against the wall.  And we all stood there and watched and felt really bad. . . She [the teacher] was doing it to all of us. (Interview 1992)

 

Maybe what [name of ashram teacher] was doing to [name of student] was hurting others [students] more than him.  For [name of student] it was an everyday thing.  I was standing right next to [him] and I was crying.  I was freaked out.  I was afraid I was gonna be next because I knew he was gettin' it for no reason.  If he could get it for no reason so could I.  (Group interview 1993) 

In the school in Vrindavan, India, abusive treatment became so commonplace that students sought to routinise their mistreatment as a protective strategy.                  

It was like boot camp, but it wasn't temporary.  You became part of a unit.  Boot camp was a full-time thing for us.  They're just constantly knocking you down, knocking you down. . . lower, lower, lower. What are they gonna do?  Beat me again?  Go ahead. (Laughter). Big deal!  (Group interview 1993)

 

But beyond the question of young people being abused by adults working in the gurukula15 was the general environment of neglect that existed.  Without parents present, many felt abandoned, or as one second generation youth remarked, ‘We were just unwanted.’  Many of the young people interviewed described the atmosphere in the gurukula as one lacking in love and compassion.  They felt invisible, abandoned and unworthy of love and affection from both their parents and adult caregivers.16   

1/22 < > 22/22

______________________________________________ ^